Editing The Myth of Mental Illness (section)

==Summary==
Szasz argues that it does not make sense to classify psychological problems as diseases or illnesses, and that speaking of "mental illness" involves a logical or conceptual error.<ref name="Ruse" /> In his view, the term "mental illness" is an inappropriate metaphor and there are no true illnesses of the mind.<ref name="Zilbergeld" /> His position has been characterized as involving a rigid distinction between the physical and the mental.<ref name="Ruse" />

The legitimacy of psychiatry is questioned by Szasz, who compares it to [[alchemy]] and [[astrology]],<ref name="NYTIMES" /> and argues that it offends the values of autonomy and liberty.<ref name="Breggin">{{cite book |author=Breggin, Peter R. |title=Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry" |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |year=1991 |page=[https://archive.org/details/toxicpsychiatryw00breg/page/415 415] |isbn=0-312-05975-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/toxicpsychiatryw00breg/page/415 }}</ref> Szasz believes that the concept of mental illness is not only logically absurd but has harmful consequences: instead of treating cases of ethical or legal deviation as occasions when a person should be taught personal responsibility, attempts are made to "cure" the deviants, for example by giving them [[tranquilizer]]s.<ref name="Ruse" /> [[Psychotherapy]] is regarded by Szasz as useful not to help people recover from illnesses, but to help them "learn about themselves, others, and life."<ref name="Zilbergeld">{{cite book |author=Zilbergeld, Bernie |title=The Shrinking of America: Myths of Psychological Change |publisher=Little, Brown & Company |location=Boston |year=1983 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shrinkingofameri00zilb/page/78 78–79] |isbn=0-316-98794-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/shrinkingofameri00zilb/page/78 }}</ref> Discussing [[Jean-Martin Charcot]] and [[hysteria]], Szasz argues that hysteria is an emotional problem and that Charcot's patients were not really ill.<ref name="Webster" />